How about that weather? July 11, 2020 7:44 AM   Subscribe

Is it hot or cold in your neck of the woods? Dealing with a blistering heat-wave or frosty winter morning? Rainy. Stormy. Sunny. Cloudy. Cold. Dry. Wet. Windy. Foggy. Whatever it is, let's talk weather. Feel free to share photos. As always, be kind to yourself and to others. Stay safe.
posted by Fizz to MetaFilter-Related at 7:44 AM (81 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

In Illinois here and oh my god it is so hot. I can’t remember the last time we had so many hot days strung together - it’s been in the 90s almost every day in July. (I know that’s normal some places but not here!)
posted by obfuscation at 7:49 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


Hot as balls with some extreme New England humidity thrown in for good measure.

Tropical Storm Fay came up and was supposed to hit us but it was a bit too far west to do anything but rain a little bit. At least there's a nice breeze.

The weird thing is, because of lockdown, it doesn't feel like summer. Spring was spent at home, summer is being spent at home, it both feels like time has stood still and is racing past us at breakneck speed.

I should be leaving for my annual Canadian vacation in a couple weeks, to spend two weeks sitting by a lake doing nothing. Sigh.
posted by bondcliff at 7:51 AM on July 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


It's hot, humid, miserable and the only room I can adequately cool down is my bedroom, so I've been living, working and sleeping in tiny bedroom for 2 weeks (ie I shoved my monitor into my closet, and use my dresser as a laptop stand).

It's tipped my hand towards actually volunteering to be part of stage one employees returning to work, because I can't work like this all summer, and if only 5 people on my floor return, that is ok for now. I'm concerned about elevator dynamics... but wow am I looking forward to the 2+mile walk, and that sweet sweet corporate air conditioning.

Summer usually isn't this miserable for me, but I'm recognizing that it's mostly because I spend the hottest bits in appropriate temp controls and it makes the hot weekends totally tolerable.

Heat just builds and makes it hard to think.


and I guess I had that rant sitting in me for a while
posted by larthegreat at 8:05 AM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


I'm used to the heat, was born in India, raised in Texas, now in the Niagara Falls region of Ontario Canada. And all of these places have different types of heat.

New Delhi, India: a very humid & wet type of heat
Dallas, Texas: dry sweltering heat
Ontario, Canada: so much humidity, like you're living in an armpit.

I've been getting back into running and it's nearly unbearable and that's at 7:30 a.m., trying to go out for a walk during the day puts you at risk for heat stroke.

Thankfully the weather broke a bit this weekend and we've had some thunderstorms and rain-showers yesterday and it's expected to rain all of today. Once work is done, I'm looking forward to sitting out on the porch with a fizzy drink and plan on just listening to the rain.
posted by Fizz at 8:05 AM on July 11, 2020 [8 favorites]


It has been incredibly hot and humid here (Chicago suburbs), but there was a break and it's really nice out today. I'm working on a fence project outdoors this morning, and haven't even broken a sweat yet.
Thursday night my area got slammed with a really intense storm that blew up out of nowhere. Here's my Instagram of the storm and immediate aftermath and then what it looked like yesterday. It was like this all over my city. Lots of trees were lost. We're supposed to have scattered severe storms today; I really hope they pass us up. Next week is supposed to be extremely hot and humid.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 8:22 AM on July 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


Nearly 30 years ago now, I read something in Carrie Fisher's debut novel (I promise this is relevant). At one point in the book, the main character, a movie actress named Suzanne, is catching up on the phone with a friend who's in New York City on Broadway. Suzanne asks her friend how she's enjoying New York. "Oh God," the friend complains, "New York in the summer feels like a cough. It's like the whole country came here and coughed."

I read that nearly 30 years ago. At some point, every summer since, the weather here calls that comparison back to mind and I nod in agreement.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:49 AM on July 11, 2020 [11 favorites]


It's been about a million degrees here (Toronto area) for a couple of weeks now. Got some of the same kind of weather as Fizz today, so it should cool off a bit. The worst part for people without air conditioning is it hasn't cooled down much overnight for all of that time.

We've had all sorts of unusual weather warnings so far this year, often several at the same time. Now they say we should be on the lookout for funnel clouds today, which I gather is basically a sort of Nerf tornado.

The way things are going with the weather lately, I'm expecting Environment Canada to issue a special weather statement that just says: "Fuck."
posted by FishBike at 9:02 AM on July 11, 2020 [7 favorites]


Hot as all out in Colorado Springs; and with 125,000 more people than ten years ago (census; usually underestimates); it is now loud as all get out with jake-braking, Harleys (used to love them until every third one was just a horrific open piped POS bursting everybodies ears within 100' distance); and yeah. Another modern disaster of growth city.

R knee has first time tendinitis, nothing to do but sit or lay and rest all day. Get bored; go outside; try to find a quiet spot; yep. In go the earplugs. Driving to a quiet spot is an hour trip. And hot. So coast downhill on bike (nothing uphill but many-a-transient-and-trash along that part of the local creek); try to chill (in go the earplugs); and yeah. WTF happened not only to this part of the world; but to about everywhere. (1-800-sad-sigh)

As noise is modern environment; and weather is environment; the forecast is for more noise, and more heat. When summer ends; schools start a little at least. That will send some of the noise off of the roads, the heat will fade; and the tourism will slow down too.

Kinda like all the other once cool little cities; Austin, San Jose, parts of LA, etc; Colorado Springs has joined the list of 'it isn't what is was'; complete with hyper-inflated housing costs. F-k.

The positive gain of late; which has always been present since I am on wheels so frequently (Cannondale fwiw; hooray American built); I have even more empathy for those who are limited to their wheelchairs, strollers, and other assistive devices. Yesterday I was on a bench; and trying to come to the most basis understanding that although I could gimp down to be closer to the creek (and I did, ow ow ow ow); what would it be like to only have an access to the creekside via all but having to crawl (not being facetious) to get somewhere.

Heyyyyy..... saw a fish in the creek. A dead trout. Dead; yes. But still; a 6-8" trout. I honestly thought all the 'there are trout in the creek' stuff was bs. So, big early 21st century modern environment cheers to the trout. Dead trout; whatever. .

On a positive; Colorado Springs also began a program to rid the city of the 90 degree square edge sidewalk ends at intersections. As in WTF do people do if they have wheelchairs, walkers, or just can't really step up; or down with a 10" square edge to navigate? So, in about a year or so; most should be gone. Believe it or not; weird as all get out; the city moves at a good pace with stuff like this when it is actually boots on the ground so to speak.

Well can you tell I'm bored today.
It is hot, crowded, noisy; and yeah. OW MY KNEE IT LOOKS LIKE A SMALL CANTALOUPE. Meh.
posted by Afghan Stan at 9:04 AM on July 11, 2020 [7 favorites]


Here in central NY it may hit 90 for the eighth day in a row. Not a bad day to stay inside with the air conditioning on ... except the dog got sick last night so we have windows open and fans on until we can't stand the heat any longer.
posted by maurice at 9:32 AM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


I. Hate. US midwestern summers. SO. MUCH.

It's hot and humid and going outside makes me angry and I can't even go to my friend's pool because the association isn't allowing guests and I wouldn't go ANYWAY because there's a pandemic but it's SO HOT.

Summer can suck it.
posted by cooker girl at 9:52 AM on July 11, 2020 [6 favorites]


In South Florida, it's 92 with a heat index of 104 outside. However, we have a new, very efficient air conditioner which my son insists on setting to "Puree" so in here it feels like the surface of Neptune and I'm sitting here in a big puffy sweatshirt trying to ignore the liquid oxygen pooling around my feet.
posted by Daily Alice at 9:59 AM on July 11, 2020 [7 favorites]


We are in a heat wave in Bakersfield, Ca, aka The Armpit of the San Joaquin. However, this spring-summer has been the best ever. The pollution cap is gone that usually keeps the daytime heat into the night, and nights have been in the sixties, for the very most part. Often in extended days with highs over 100 degrees, nights stay in the eighties. We are still in the comfortable seventies, and even sixties at night. So grand. The ultra hot days, make the veggies ripen at an icredible rate, in my tiny garden. Yes, yes, yes. No complaints. Oh well looking at it for real, the nights will hit just barely 80 for the next couple and then back down into the mid seventies. Liveable.
posted by Oyéah at 10:08 AM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


But, I don't even turn the lamps on they are evil vectors of heat. I keep the house open for as long as possible, and then open it up again in the dead of night, yeah. This desktop, also an evil vector of heat. I use 4.4 sq foot fridge with a tiny freezer, because evil vector of heat, and I hate to pay to cool an area, that another appliance has heated. Oh well.

I am going to tell this to you all, something I discovered. If you put a sprig of fresh basil in with your cut in half avocado, it will not oxidize, it will stay nice and green, until you want to use it, and this sitting out on the counter in a sealed baggie, or in the fridge. This makes buying avocados worth it for singular folks.
posted by Oyéah at 10:15 AM on July 11, 2020 [6 favorites]


Southern Ontario. Took out the garbage last night; it was like a lung out there: 33 degrees and stinking humid, making it more like 40. Heavy, restless grey clouds overhead; brooding black clouds to the south.

As I dumped the garbage bag in the bin, 45 seconds after I had stepped out of my front door, the first few mist-like droplets were drifting down. It began raining while I was on the return trip to my door. When I walked in, it looked like I had been standing in shower. Two minutes later it was like a tropical monsoon.

Ten minutes after that, the rain had ceased, the clouds had move to the north, leaving partly cloudy skies and 22 degrees. There were long continuous twenty- and thirty-second rolls of thunder from the retreating storm to the the north.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:21 AM on July 11, 2020 [6 favorites]


In Alberta it has been unseasonably cool and wet, very wet. Right this instant it's actually pretty nice out but we've had such excessive rain for weeks that going into anything resembling nature results in plagues of mosquitoes carrying you off into the sky never to be seen or heard from again.

I kind-of have mixed feelings about it, I personally don't mind the rain and I also dislike hot weather so all in all it's been pleasant in that regard (I haven't turned on my AC at all this year, and I periodically put on a sweater when I go out because it's been dipping below 20C (68F) on cloudy days)...Buuut I also like camping and the endless rain and bugs have kept me away from any of my usual places. I have the advantage that I live in a high rise apartment, higher than the mosquitoes fly, and downtown doesn't have a lot of standing water anyways so I mostly just avoid the river valley and I'm fine.

On my parents acreage they've had a fair amount of flooding and are running a diesel pump most days to keep the water at bay. Also they are somewhat trapped inside since the mosquitoes are really bad on their property and they can't go out without bug nets and lots of DEET. Which is funny since most years by this time it is getting pretty dry, they had a pond dug several years ago so they could water their garden as they'd had to truck in water a few times to keep the plants alive.
posted by selenized at 10:23 AM on July 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


I don't have any notes to share on the weather but my 4 year old just ran in here singing "RAH RAH RUSSIAN TEA" which it took me quite a while to realize was actually "Rasputin" by Boney M. I don't know where she heard this song.
posted by sugar and confetti at 10:27 AM on July 11, 2020 [15 favorites]


17°C (63°F) here, i.e. the ideal summer temperature. 22°C (72°F) is about my limit.
posted by Klipspringer at 10:42 AM on July 11, 2020 [6 favorites]


It's been raining constantly and I can't. stop. having. migraines. :) :) :) Any time we have a clear day I'm usually in postdrome, and then there's prodrome for the next migraine because it's invariably going to rain in the next day or so... I'm ready for that summer I was promised.
posted by brook horse at 10:42 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


The AC has been running almost constantly since I woke up this morning. 115 is the predicted high. A few days ago, the news service was forecasting 120 for the weekend, so . . . I guess I should feel fortunate that it’s only gonna be 115? Sadly, the succulents on my patio just couldn’t take the heat. They’ve all shriveled up.
posted by kbar1 at 10:57 AM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


It was rainy last week but now in the mid 60's expected to go up a bit to 70 or so and sunny this week here in the Netherlands. Its great weather for walking around the city.

We spent an hour today sitting on our back balcony with coffee and some bread we got from my favorite bakery. I got on my bike this morning to get us some baked goods and sourdough we could use for dipping with our Moules Frites that we had for lunch.

Swifts were swarming overhead, screaming like they always do. Pointed the camera upwards towards the clouds and took a photo. Sure enough, they swarmed out of the picture and I think I only caught one.
posted by vacapinta at 11:18 AM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


It was 99F here in SW New Mexico the other day. But it was only 96F yesterday, when we took the one mile loop to see the cliff dwellings. The rangers at the trailhead were agreeable and suggested that there was a "turnback" point just below the "18 flights" of stairs leading up to the dwellings. After a brief talk about not entering the apartments or leaning on the walls they wished us "happy trails" and we were off.

It occurred to me that, on mountain trails, the term "switchbacks" are more appropriate than "flights," but we trucked ever upward, crossing and recrossing the little stream that fed into the Gila River. Now, I am emerging from a long period of semi-invalidism, where the farthest I've walked lately was across a goddam parking lot, but I took my time and stayed inside my wind. I never saw the stairs, but a series of steep switchbacks, all of them paved with rock steps, about three hundred goddam rock steps, finally led us to the dwelings.

Any of you who've ever visited such ruins know what I mean by a strong sense of place, almost religiously exemplifying without explaining the people who built this place, and who stayed only three or four generations before moving on. I thought, these guys had some clever engineers to design such awesome buildings, but for sure, there were lots of other guys who had to bring water up from the creek to make the adobe.

Then we walked back down, staying in the clockwise direction, five or six thousand rock steps back down to the creek, then another sever or eight miles back to the trailhead. Okay, I know. It was a one mile loop, but it was a subjective mile. We managed it in in three hours. It was worth it.

On the drive back to Silver City we were treated to brief, but enthusiastic rain shower. I'm sure the fire crews who've been trying to tidy up the Tadpole fire appreciated the assist. They are truly good at what they do.

They say the monsoons will arrive here soon, maybe next week. Good. In the meantime, it's in the mid 90'sF here today. But it's a dry heat, and my old bones love it.
posted by mule98J at 11:20 AM on July 11, 2020 [6 favorites]


Southern Ontario. Took out the garbage last night; it was like a lung out there: 33 degrees and stinking humid, making it more like 40.

Environment Canada Special Weather Statement: Expect garbage lung conditions to continue.

Had it not been for the pandemic, we'd planned to be in Spokane, WA right now. Where it would still be hot (I melted the coating on my prescription sunglasses the last time we were there because I accidentally left them in the car for an hour or so), but it is a drier heat than Southern Ontario...
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:34 AM on July 11, 2020 [7 favorites]


We had a freak ass windstorm on Monday when I was home mildly injured from work and it's a damn good thing I was home because I had to scurry around the garden watering. Seriously wild weather this year in SF. Even for SF. It's making being back at work fun because I'm so sun-stroke prone. Hat/Mask/sunscreen is a must so I don't get a mask tan! I already have a farmer's tan. No helping that!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:44 AM on July 11, 2020 [5 favorites]


Hat/Mask/sunscreen is a must so I don't get a mask tan!

Oh right. Mask tans are totally going to be thing now!

A new storm system just moved in over the last 15 minutes or so. I was expecting to see people on the bar patios across the street scatter (indoor food service is not currently permitted here, thankfully), but a number of resolute souls are staying put, sipping pints in the rain.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:17 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


SoCal really has had stunning weather all this time, largely without the one week a month heat waves we usually get Mar-June, so the highs around 102 this weekend are fair tax. We've usually returned the window unit to the bedroom window by the second week of June and only did it today since it was already 78 when I woke up at 8:15am.

Our windows are all side-sliders and part of my highly-questionable normal window unit rig (first floor, and the only thing under the window unit outside is a shrub and the edge of the central air condenser) is a big plug I made of upholstery foam inside a king-size pillowcase that fits into the open part of the window above the AC unit. I was just thinking as I fitted it today that I need to come up with something that'll make it a little more wind-resistant and stay in place.

I just now went outside to find that the garden hose, which I rarely turn off at the faucet and just keep a sprayer end on it because I am lazy and bad, had sprung a leak that was spraying halfway across the yard dead-center into the foam window plug. If it had been ANY closer to the window, it would have knocked it inside and proceeded to soak our mattress, one of the dogs, and probably the outlets on the other side of the bed.

I don't entirely understand why our waves of hot weather so often strike on weekends. I put in a much larger than normal panic garden this spring, and have just acquired the supplies to panic-expand it another 20ish square feet, but I also have to work a full-time job on weekdays. It'll start cooling off a bit on Monday, but not enough for me to get much done after work before I lose the light, so I may have to pull a week of 5am garden shifts to work in the cool. It's going to stay around 88-92, which is pretty good for LA July, but the nights are dipping back down just below 60 later in the week, which is unusual July-midOct. And then I'll be mad about the AC unit, because my compensation for the vile housing costs here is 300ish nights of sweet cool night air blowing on me from the fan that normally goes in that spot and I hate giving up even a few of those, though I actually sleep better with the roar of the window unit.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:52 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


It’s not so hot here, but the humidity is ridiculous. Like fog in the morning ridiculous. My cats are melting, but won’t go in the AC’d bedroom unless I’m in there....
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:05 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


Oh right. Mask tans are totally going to be thing now!

After a day out, I just sit in the back garden for an hour in my Batman costume to even it all out.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:09 PM on July 11, 2020 [21 favorites]


"Western Canada has found itself awash in unusually cold temperatures, due to an upper-level low, which is a large dip in the jetstream." All I know is it has been a very cool summer so far on the BC coast. 16c and now it started raining as I type. Slugs and assorted soil-bound pests are running rampant in the garden where normally heat would've slowed them way down.

I'm personally enjoying the temps, as are my leafy greens, but my tomatoes are hoping it will heat up soon. Because of seed shortages I started whatever random tomatoes I could find locally, the bulk of which ended up being Pollock tomatoes, bred for cold hardiness by a northern BC gardener. It will be interesting to see how they do into the fall. May turn out to be a happy coincidence.
posted by Lorin at 1:36 PM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


It's been really hot in this neck of the upstate NY woods--90s and even low 100s. My poor grass looks toasted, although it will come back (which, alas, is more than can be said for the impatiens, which have been thoroughly fried). At least we're getting some rain today.

Unfortunately, the huge (and historic) maple that shades the front of my house and keeps things cool(er) is near death and has to be taken down. By some equally unfortunate irony, all of the air conditioning in the house is on the side which is still under renovation, and investigation has revealed that I cannot get either a window a/c (sill is too deep + oddly-sized Victorian windows) or a portable a/c (uneven floors); I have resigned myself to seeing someone on Monday about installing a ductless unit in my upstairs bedroom.
posted by thomas j wise at 1:39 PM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


I honestly have no idea what is and isn't normal anymore. Like, when did it become July? Wasn't it just February yesterday? And at the same time, is it 2025 yet? I keep thinking I'm going to have some Rip Van Winkle moment where I wake up one day and it's the year 2120 and the world will just be a smoking crater. Or something.

On the weather note, I woke up at 3am two nights ago because it was ridiculously hot in my room. Which is weird, because my room is the only air conditioned room I have.

Cue panicked "Oh god don't let my precious air conditioner have died." So I'm frantically pressing the power button, then I'm unplugging it, cleaning dust off the filter, and finally I check the water spigot thing which you're supposed to empty regularly but literally has never had water in it, and suddenly a whole bunch of water comes gushing out.

And that appears to have been the issue, because it started working after I plugged it back in. But let me tell you, trying to do all that troubleshooting at 3 am in the dark (and also all the bending down which my super screwed up back hated), was not fun.

Needless to say, I did not get back to sleep that night. On the bright side, so glad that I don't have to replace the air conditioner.

Like larthegreat, I'm used to spending my days at my very well air conditioned place of employment. I hardly ever leave my bedroom these days. My "work from home" set up is crammed into a tiny corner in my room. I've got so many cords over there that it's both a tripping hazard and a fire hazard.

I just realized the other day I still have snow tires on my car. But then I was like, "well, I'm driving like a mile a week these days if that, and hot weather never seems to stick around for that long in New England, so I guess they can just stay on there this season."
posted by litera scripta manet at 2:02 PM on July 11, 2020 [5 favorites]


It's been cool, wet and windy in my part of the UK. June and July have been variable after an unseasonably hot spring. I'm predicting some stupidly hot weather here in August.

On the plus side, our little vegetable garden at the front of the house is churning out green beans, onions, runner beans, courgettes (zucchini), strawberries and mulberries like there's no tomorrow. Also, my lawn needs cutting again just a few days after I last did it. But the rain has made the colour amazing, like someone just painted it (0, 255, 0). Looks like there'll be another bucket of cobnuts from my tree in the autumn; this year I'm going to try to remember to bring them indoors, as the local wildlife took the whole bucket-full in one night last year.
posted by pipeski at 2:02 PM on July 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


Here in the Welsh Borders we’re in a delightful sunny spell after a few wet weeks. Pretty much ideal weather: light breeze, blue sky, 18-20c. We drove out to the coast for the first time since lockdown and had a wonderful time paddling in the sea and watching all the dogs and eating icecream.
posted by Balthamos at 2:09 PM on July 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


It’s July in DC, so it’s hot and humid with occasional showstopping thunderstorms. But I’m still trying to get exercise so I masked up and went for a walk in areas that aren’t very crowded. (I actually used the random coordinate generator from the Randonauts post to pick a destination!) Saw a monarch butterfly and a grey catbird, several extremely cute dogs, and a semi-hidden stretch of Rock Creek Park. Worth it, especially once my iced tea is done brewing in a minute or so.
posted by capricorn at 3:07 PM on July 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


I just now went outside to find that the garden hose, which I rarely turn off at the faucet and just keep a sprayer end on it because I am lazy and bad, had sprung a leak that was spraying halfway across the yard

Oh my god, Lyn Never, are you me? This exact thing happened at my house today. Took about ten creepy minutes for us to figure out what happened. Little e thought some neighbor had played a prank on us. Which would have been deeply weird, but someone did steal our porch lightbulbs this year (???) so apparently we do have at least one deeply weird person around here.

It’s warm where I am but not too warm. We had a huge storm the other day where the lightning actually had me a bit spooked. This morning was nice weather for biking, so I went out for a short ride. I had a minor wipeout last weekend so was a little less at ease in the seat today, but overall it’s getting better.
posted by eirias at 3:56 PM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


Hot is what we do, and it's doing it. What is unusual is that the people who couldn't come from March 17-June 1 due to the roadblock/airport shutdown are trying to do their annual pilgrimages now, and it's not the usual delightful 77 degrees they are accustomed to finding. In fact, the heat index is 104°, and they are falling out at an alarming rate.

We're usually a locals-only ghost town from July 1 to Fantasy Fest (cancelled) at the end of October, so it's extra weird to see this on top of being sequestered away from the rest of the human race for 90 days.

Also, are bikinis made of dental floss and teabags street legal in Real America™? Asking for a friend...
posted by halfbuckaroo at 4:00 PM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


Here in New Hampshire we were supposed to maybe get a glancing hit from Fay so the Trump campaign canceled their rally they were going to have tonight and anyway it's 80 degrees and sunny right now.

So that means a bunch of people on Twitter are gleefully showing pictures of what it's like outside right now, including the Lincoln Project. It's a bit strange.
posted by damayanti at 4:01 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


Cool and damp so far this summer in western Washington, with many partly or mostly cloudy days and temperatures in mid to high 60s.
posted by bearwife at 4:34 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


In Toronto, in a basement thats noticeably cooler than ground level, I've been sleeping with a towel on my pillow. It's been raining on and off all day today and the temperature is finally approaching the habitable zone, and I've just opened my windows for the first time in at least a week.

There was a bit of weather couple days ago too, Canadians might have seen the pics and clips of submarine cars going around the intrewebs and teevees. Our back laneway was blocked by a downed tree for 2 days, and a good chunk of that tree is still lying on top of the powerlines like a sword of Damocles.
posted by rodlymight at 4:39 PM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


90 degree weather + hot flashes + sunburn = what is happening
posted by Melismata at 4:39 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


Southern Interior BC. So. Much. Rain. The entire province has been wetter than usual. Every single weather station in the province recorded above average rainfall for the month of june except YVR which recorded 99% of the average. My town is a semi arid climate; we've got cactus and sage brush and a week or two of 40 degree weather every summer. So far I don't think we've hit 30 and we had two days where the relative humidy was 95% when it's normally like 40% on a bad day.

My poor pepper plants have grown like 4" since I transplanted them; normally they'd be a good foot tall by now.
posted by Mitheral at 4:44 PM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


It's been up and down here in Maine. 70's, the 80's and humid as all get out. Bad thunderstorms yesterday.

I've been keeping the A/C on in the bedroom, which cools off the whole place, as it's only 400 square feet. Makes my electric bill go high, but I had that set aside when the landlord came down to get it today.

My husband finally gave up his struggle today and passed this evening. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, we'd been expecting it, but it was still a hard thing to hear. I've been visiting him every day, and today I finally hit a wall of panic and light-headedness that I couldn't drive down there. I've spent so much time with him, and he was in a coma when he died.

I've had a good friend of ours, a fellow dancer of his, who has supported me throughout all of this, and had a good talk with her, and she helped me a lot.

My Dad and I used to compare the weather all the time, so I love talking about weather, and I can't help but think my husband chose to go out when there was a comet speeding by. Poor guy, he'd been thru a lot. I love him so much.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 6:18 PM on July 11, 2020 [30 favorites]


I'm so sorry, Marie.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:23 PM on July 11, 2020 [5 favorites]


People are all celebrating Lin Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovic's friendship in another thread, and that's just reminded me of some weather-inspired things Lin's done: three times now, during NYC heatwaves, he's teamed up with one of his Freestyle Love Supreme colleagues to do a quick freestyle about how it is "Hot as Balls".

Hot As Balls #1, 2006

Hot As Balls #2, 2012

Hot as Balls #3, 2018
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:26 PM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


This week has been sweaty and just ugh. I think we’re over the worst of it (at least for a few days). I highly recommend doing the house cat thing and lying on the floor if possible - not moving around too much plus spreading out seemed to help me get through the worst of the afternoons without a/c. Also multiple showers.

Also, earlier tonight I was sitting on the balcony and a guy went by on the sidewalk fully eating right out of a litre tub of chocolate ice cream (it must have been pretty frozen because he paused briefly to bend the metal spoon back into shape before continuing on his way). I am fully behind this. Who needs cones!
posted by janepanic at 6:33 PM on July 11, 2020 [5 favorites]


Oh, Marie Mon Dieu, I am so very, very sorry for your loss. Take care.
posted by heyho at 6:35 PM on July 11, 2020 [6 favorites]


So so sorry, Marie.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:24 PM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


So sorry for your loss Marie.

Been over 90F for at least 2 weeks here in VA. We did 7 mile (ca. 11 km) hikes Sat and Sunday last week. The hikes reminded me that I'm over 50. First hike in years when I had trouble keeping up with my son. That's two camping trips down in the new camper and many more to go. I booked camping spots for a 6-day trip down the Blue Ridge Pkwy in September, and my son wants to take a week to go visit the more Southern Civil War battlefields that he has never been to.
posted by COD at 7:52 PM on July 11, 2020


Marie, I'm so sorry.
posted by ChuraChura at 8:29 PM on July 11, 2020


My deepest condolences, Marie.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:42 PM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


Marie, I'm so sorry. You've been through so much.

My weather is barky. As in my dog won't shut up. Ever. I don't know what's going on with him but lately he is hysterical over every tiny thing, leaping around and barking his head off and I can never just get into a groovy mellow vibe. We've been playing gin rummy a lot and he's decided to be an insane idiot every time the cards get shuffled. I just want a break from all this noise.
posted by HotToddy at 8:48 PM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


Marie, my condolences. All my good energy being sent your way.
posted by Fizz at 9:01 PM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


My daughter was way up past her bed-time, and spied on me watching DBMM historical wargaming instructional videos. Once I knew she was there, we switched to cribbage strategy videos, as her grandmother is a demon with a deck of cards and we're both sick of losing. Then she asked, "Why do people hate John Cena even though he's really nice? He visits sick kids!"

We had a conversation about Kayfabe, using the example of The Big Show, who has a very charming tween sitcom, and Mable and Mark Henry make an appearance. And then the The Rock, who my 11yo nephew adores, and Mankind, who is in my girl's eyes the best acrobat of all. After John Cena. We watched a few bootleg videos.

Professional wrestling is mock-combat acrobatics with a lot of emotional backstory. She's so about any story, she loves storytelling. So she asked who my least favorite wrestler was, in terms of kayfabe, and I said Triple H. And then we watched the match with The Big Show vs. Mankind, and HHH was in a cage twenty feet in the air, and the bastard still managed to win the match.

During the match:

"Did he actually hit him with the chair?"
"Yes."
"Did it HURT???"
"A little bit, Big Show knew it was coming."
"Did they practice that?"
"Probably."
"Cooool!"
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:26 PM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


((((((Marie Mon Dieu))))))
posted by bearwife at 11:40 PM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


I am one of those people who likes it hot and humid. Loosens the joints. It has been hot and humid here so I am in my favorite element. Love me a Chicago or NY or big city summer.
posted by AugustWest at 12:00 AM on July 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


Condolences Marie Mon Dieu.
posted by Cranberry at 12:36 AM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


It just rained on my head a lot, in a cataclysmic thunderstorm that demonstrated how blocked our gutters are. The cascades of water coming out of the gutter were somehow directed right against our sliding door, and flooding underneath it, so I went out there to prop things under the spray and redirect it. (I wasn't getting up on a ladder to actually deal with the gutter in that amount of lightning).

I was so wet, you guys. But on the plus side, once I peeled off all my wet clothes, a hot bath with a glass of whisky seemed like the only option, and things have been pretty good since then.
posted by lollusc at 1:03 AM on July 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


(Reading back through the thread) Marie, I'm so sorry.

.
posted by lollusc at 1:04 AM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


It’s varying between just not too hot (26c/79f) and too hot (34c/93f) in Paris this month, and my apartment on the 8th floor takes ages to cool down so it stays too hot overnight. I’ve got a bunch of fans and a cooling fan that has water in it, an aircon unit is too expensive and I think the building heats my apartment the most.

AugustWest, hot weather is good for my back but exacerbates fibromyalgia unfortunately! I also just prefer cool weather, my family is English, Scottish and Danish so it’s in my blood!

Marie, I’m so sorry for your loss xx

Fizz, thanks for this post!
posted by ellieBOA at 4:50 AM on July 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


Me too, AugustWest! :) Glad I’m not the only one! It’s nice to have my nails and cuticles back too.
posted by Melismata at 5:45 AM on July 12, 2020


I'm so sorry, Marie. You're in my thoughts.
posted by drlith at 6:15 AM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


I walk “with” a friend every morning at 7:30. (She walks in her neighborhood and I walk in mine and we talk on the phone.) this morning was the first morning in weeks that it hasn’t felt like I was walking through water - it was so nice to have a break from the humidity.
posted by firei at 6:21 AM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


Marie, so sorry for your loss.

I haven't been outside to see a lot of weather this week, as babyfeet arrived on Monday. Mrfeet had kept talking about how it was a full moon and thunderstorms, they would definitely be arriving on the weekend, she decided to come in calm weather.

It's been cold here with some rain (welcome but a bit grey and dreary) but today was one of those sunny but cool days and I was able to wrap up the baby and walk her outside for the first time since we got home on Tuesday.
posted by freethefeet at 7:52 AM on July 12, 2020 [9 favorites]



"Western Canada has found itself awash in unusually cold temperatures, due to an upper-level low, which is a large dip in the jetstream." All I know is it has been a very cool summer so far on the BC coast. 16c and now it started raining as I type.


worth noting. When my family moved to the Vancouver area in 1969, my dad was advised to never book his summer vacation before the middle of July as late June and early July were notoriously wet, cold, unpleasant. So for whatever reason, what we're experiencing thus far this summer seems to be "the old normal". And now, the middle of the month three days away, I notice at least a little more sun in the forecast ...
posted by philip-random at 8:57 AM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Portland has been vacillating between the genuinely summery weather I loathe, sunny and clear and pushing well into the 80s some days, and the unseasonal cool and wet and overcast that I hope for every morning when I get up. I feel a little bit spiteful about wishing away summer because I'm working from home and other folks really like it when it's nice out, but I live in an old old house with no central air and even with an environmental retrofit a few years back still tends to warm up far too much during sustained days of sunny hot weather.

So I'm taking every cool day I can get with thanks, and trying to remember to spend a little time on the patio on the spring-ish inbetween days where it's clear but not hot and there's a good breeze.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:45 AM on July 12, 2020 [4 favorites]


Oh Marie, I’m so sorry. Holding you in the light.

This is only my 2nd summer here on the OR coast so I don’t know what normal is and I can’t find a weather app that works here, so I can’t even figure out where the weather comes from. I think maybe we just make it here and export it. So for those east, it’s been gray, foggy and cool to coldish with intermittent rain for several weeks and I love it. It’s sunny today, bah, that means there is nowhere to take hyper reactive dog to run; everywhere will be full of other dogs and tourists. But it’s still only 63 (gloat, gloat, I do not miss the heat one iota) and maybe the tomatoes, which were theatrically giving up, will come back in the sunshine.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:15 PM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


Oh Marie, I am so sorry for your loss. This is such a challenging time to lose someone. I hope you are able to be with other loved ones in some way.
posted by eirias at 1:51 PM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Today it's finally warm in London. For the past week-and-a-bit, the mercury's barely touched 70F, but today it soared to 75. (I still have my phone's weather app set to Fahrenheit. You can take the girl out of America, but...)

Today I managed an outdoor lunch with friends, sitting a responsible distance apart with ample use of hand sanitiser. Not something I'd have planned, but they phoned and said "we are literally having lunch on your street right now", and "yes" was the only answer. If I'd been sensible and refused, I know the walls of solitude would have closed in again, and I'd have spent the rest of the day unhappy.

That's the thing about solitude-- my strategy has been to keep moving and not allow myself time to feel loneliness, as a shark keeps water flowing through its gills only through constant forward motion.

At lunch, one friend spontaneously pressed my hand. Physical contact from another human being: hadn't had that since March. It wasn't romantic or sexual, just trust and affection (he's an old friend and colleague with an excellent husband at home). Then he gallantly offered hand sanitiser.

I've been cautiously opening up a little. Yesterday I hosted my first rehearsal since lockdown: three young instrumentalists who were very good about masks and distancing. Their college required them to submit a final recital video, but would not provide them practice space with a piano; so I was glad to help. They hadn't played together in a while; when they finished the final section, they broke out in happy cheers. I was working upstairs, and it made me smile.

I (cautiously) like the feeling of human connections re-forming, but I mistrust it. Loneliness corrodes; it corrodes everything, but especially judgement and perspective. I *want* lockdown to be over; but the necessity for it is not.

I'm still planning to mostly stay in, and mask up when out.
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:21 PM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


Marie, my heart goes out to yours. My deepest sympathies.
posted by vers at 3:09 PM on July 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Marie, I’m so sorry to see the news. Your posts about your husband’s health issues in recent weeks were hard to read but I always admired the way that your fierce love for him burst through, omnipresent in every post. Sending you my best wishes and deepest sympathies.
posted by cheapskatebay at 5:11 PM on July 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


MMD, I’m so sorry. Anticipation is no protection.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:45 PM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


For the first time in my life, I’m living in a building with super-effective HVAC. Even though most aspects of my life are not going so well, I can’t remember ever being this comfortable in the middle of a muggy New York summer.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:39 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


Oh! Marie MonDieu, my deepest sympathies.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:09 AM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


It's been in the upper 90s from what I hear. I've been in vampire mode for the past few weeks enjoying the mostly dusk-to-dawn time when it's cool and quiet.

I've spent a lot of time outside (on the sidewalk at least) looking at the sky and watching the planets (and a dozen or so stars that can be seen from the LA Valley). Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Venus, watching the moon change phase and move on back every day.

I've seen half a dozen stray cats meandering by. And two (maybe three) foxes! WTF? Surprisingly, a fox was scared of a cat almost as much as me. The crows come at dawn.

Also found a new can harvester to offload my recycling on, the new property owners don't put out the recycling bins the night before like normal people depriving can harvesters the chance to pick some cans. So that's pretty good.

There's a surprising amount of both nothing and thing that go on between 1 and 6 a.m.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:56 AM on July 13, 2020 [2 favorites]


I hate summer. Now that I'm traveling to work one day a week on a bicycle ('cause I don't want a car, nowhere I go has parking, and adding another person to public transit seems irresponsible at the moment), I hate summer even more. It's miserable. I show up at work looking like I fell into a pool. Using the gym showers seems irresponsible. I'm planning to buy a Vespa-knockoff this week, so at least only my head will be sweaty. There are enough small, slow roads between home and work that I'm unlikely to break more than one or two bones.

If you ask me, the only three good things about summer are lightening bugs, Rainier cherries and Korean Melons. (And tomatoes, but it's impossible to find a good tomato where I live, so I've given up.) And the only store I can walk to that has Rainier cherries is behaving so irresponsibly that I won't shop there. Korean melons, though, are currently 20% of my calorie intake.

Fuck summer. But, at least the nights are windy and less awful and the parks are open.
posted by eotvos at 12:18 PM on July 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


Marie MonDieu, I’m sorry for your loss. This is a terrible time to grieve, but I know there’s never a good time. I’m glad your friend was there for you to talk to.
posted by areaperson at 6:28 AM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]


Just heard about the loudest thunder I've ever encountered. Really glad the road crew outside my place cleared off.

It's been very hot here, as other Mainers have attested above, but my father in law finally hacked a path on his land to the Sandy River and we've been swimming on the regular. River swimming is the best thing.
posted by selfnoise at 7:48 AM on July 14, 2020


Gothenburg is more or less the most shitty part of the country atm, with ≈16°C and rain for the past week. Before that it was all sunny and 30°C which was also a source of complaints, but with fewer slugs in the garden.
posted by monocultured at 3:34 PM on July 14, 2020


Still, Gothenburg was nice to me on my B-day with just the right amount of sun during our walk and distance-picknicking in the botanical gardens (a great destination at this time of the year).
And outside town, the blueberries are ripe now. They don't mind the rain and the slugs.

(Ok. Don't get me started on slugs)
posted by Namlit at 12:40 AM on July 15, 2020


It’s 33c/92f here in PHX. At four fucking thirty in the morning. Stupid heat island effect.
posted by nat at 4:33 AM on July 17, 2020


You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows in my city.

Chicago does not fare well during heatwaves, and we're in the midst of a short one.
posted by heyho at 2:08 PM on July 18, 2020


I just wanted to say I'm sorry for talking about my loss in this thread, but very grateful to everyone who has said anything, here or otherwise. Thank you guys, so much.

It was 72 this morning, high of 85 today. I collected my husband's ashes yesterday. Now they sit, on the side table.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 6:31 PM on July 21, 2020 [6 favorites]


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